Auslan tour - HMB Endeavour cannon Auslan tour - HMB Endeavour cannon  

‘The ship struck and stuck fast’

James Cook wrote this in his journal in July 1770, when HMB Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef and became stuck. To try and lift the ship off the reef, Cook ordered the crew to throw heavy objects overboard, such as ballast and six cannons. This is one of those six cannons.

Once the ship had been lifted off the reef, Cook had to address the hole in the hull (the bottom of the ship). Cook and his crew used a special technique called ‘fothering’. Fothering is when a sail is covered with sticky fibres, such as sheep’s wool and dung. The fothering sail is then lowered beneath the boat to cover the hole (like a giant band-aid for the ship).

After patching the hole, the Endeavour was then hauled ashore onto the banks of the nearby Walambaal Biri, also called Endeavour River.

After 48 days with the Gugu Yimithirr Bama (people) of Gungarde (Cooktown), Endeavour continued its voyage to Timor, then returned to England. Nearly 200 years later in 1969, a team of divers recovered many of the items thrown overboard including the Endeavour cannons and ship’s ballast.

This cannon is on loan to the museum from the National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW.

Before you move to the next object, consider this:

What would Australia’s history have been like, if the Endeavour had not been freed from the Great Barrier Reef?